After leaving lovely Corfu Town we took a gentle motor over to a Petriri, a village with a small harbour that had a timeless ambience about it. Once anchored we saw we were in good company, our friends Jane and Brett from Amble were already there. We soon made arrangements for them to join us for a BBQ and some ‘bubbly’ to celebrate Paul and I meeting 6 years ago. We had a great evening. (See selfie photo) Paul and I are very happy and contented together and we would certainly agree that the relationship was well worth the ‘staying power’ from our prospective. Those of you who know us well will agree that this is indeed an achievement for us as we have experienced some difficult and interesting times!
The next day we decided to go ashore and explore this sleepy location. We were well rewarded, just a couple of quiet narrow roads, no more really than a dirt track and several tavernas’s and bars. There were quite a few fishing boats, a few of them trying to sell their catch to passersby. It was a very hot day so we stopped at a small hotel for an ice cream. There we saw Roger and Pam from Cap’dor, who was enjoying the swimming pool with their daughter Sarah and grand children, Felix and Abigail. This hotel gives anyone the opportunity to use their pool, relax on sun beds and enjoy a drink or ice cream in lovely surroundings.
Later that day we took our dinghy around to the next cove to visit a taverna that had been suggested to us. The Taverna Panorama is beautifully located to have a view over the bay with its crystal clear waters and has magical gardens. From the pontoon you can follow various paths; one will lead you to a small beach with sun beds and hammocks swinging from the trees, one that invites you to a massage and one that takes you to the restaurant and the terrace bar. It is one of those places that I can imagine children love, magical hidden gardens with winding paths, little fish ponds, trellises that support abundant amounts of pretty flowers and many fairy lights strung between the trees. Well, we certainly loved it and spent several hours there drinking red wine on the balcony in the late afternoon sun and pleasantly chatting with some fellow British yachtsmen we met there.
We were in need of stocking up on provisions so the next morning we headed off to the Taverna “Leonidas” where we had been advised that they could organise a hire car for you. This taverna also offered the use of their showers and would do your laundry for you, all free of charge! The hire car was soon arranged so we set off south to do a massive food shop. We stopped for lunch at a timeless taverna located on the beach that for us was very reminiscent of Goa. Again we were surrounded by many hungry cats so we fed them our leftovers being very careful that they all got equal shares! Our one last goal before we handed the car back was to purchase a gas cylinder, an important item we had found quite difficult to track down so far. However we stopped at a small type shop that had some gas bottles stood outside and with the help of sign language and some German (yes, German) we managed to procure a gas bottle that was suitable for our boat. The shop owner was Katarina, a lovely Greek lady that was very proud to show us her vegetable garden that she alone tended, the products which she sold in her shop. Before we left Katarina gave us two pink eggs as a present, we were not really sure what to do with these so we kept them a few days to admire them but disposed of them before they caused any bad smells! That evening we dined with Mike and Kay at taverna Leonidas before setting off the next morning to mainland Greece.